Lisa Saville Young

Biography

I qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2001 after completing my training at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg). I was awarded the Flanagan Scholarship which enabled me to continue my studies abroad where I obtained an MPhil in Social and Developmental Psychology from Cambridge University and a PhD from the University of London, Birkbeck College. I worked as a lecturer at Birkbeck College and Anglia Ruskin University in the UK before taking up the position of a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Rhodes Psychology Department in 2008. I am currently an Associate Professor and my theoretical interests include psychoanalytic theory and contemporary attachment theory and their application to a range of issues including qualitative research, early intervention programmes and broader social issues. I have expertise in qualitative research methodology and my research interests include family relationships – in particular all aspects of sibling relationships and parent-infant relationships – and I have recently begun doing work in the area of childhood disability. I have a small private practice and work psychoanalytically, with a growing interest in working with parents and infants. I am the Programme Coordinator of the Professional Training in Clinical Psychology.

Research Interest

"Theoretical interests include psychoanalytic theory and contemporary attachment theory, and their application to contemporary social issues. Research interests include family relationships – in particular all aspects of sibling relationships and parent-infant relationships. I am also interested in research related to Masibambane, a community engagement project that I co-ordinate which involves university students working with children with disabilities and their caregivers. The research areas that this community project draws on includes childhood disability, service learning and parent-child relationships. Qualitative research methodology experience and expertise includes discourse analysis, narrative analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis and psychosocial research methods (applying psychoanalysis to qualitative research)."